The Kitchen Debate

(8 min)tv-14

In July 1959, Vice President Richard Nixon traveled to Moscow to open the U.S. Trade and Cultural Fair in Sokolniki Park. In the kitchen of the exhibit's model house built by General Electric, Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev began an impromptu series of debates on the merits of capitalism and communism. An audio segment of one of the exchanges, which was filmed by the American company Ampex on the first videotape recorder, illustrates the Cold War tensions simmering beneath the surface.